"When the Giants Come to Town..." is my blog intended to chronicle my thoughts on San Francisco Giants baseball. My special interest is in prospects and the farm system, but of course, will comment on all aspects of the San Francisco Giants. I will also comment on baseball in general, particularly from a fantasy baseball perspective. I hope you will find the site informative, and invite you to join in the discussion.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Game Wrap 5/8/2014: Giants 3 Dodgers 1

Ryan Vogelsong had another Vogelstrong start and the Giants bullpen outpitched the Dodgers bullpen in extra innings to take the opener in a 4 games series in LA. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .318. It was the walk in the top of the 10'th that resulted in Pagan's contribution to the scoring, the go-ahead run on a sac fly by Hector Sanchez after 2 more walks loaded the bases.

Hunter Pence- 1 for 4, BB. BA= .255. Pence also drew a walk in the 10'th and came around to score on Brandon Belt's single for an insurance run.

Hector Sanchez- 0 for 0, SF. BA= .240. The Hector comes through in the clutch once again with his 15'th RBI in just 50 AB on the season.

Brandon Belt- 1 for 5. BA= .264. Up until the 10'th, Belt was having a pretty bad game at the plate going 0 for 4 with 2 K's. He went the other way in the 10'th for a 2 out RBI to drive in the insurance run.

Brandon Hicks- 1 for 4, HR(6). BA= .200. The Giants were headed for what looked like it could be a 1-0 loss to Josh Beckett and the Dodgers when Hicks tied it up in the 7'th with a dinger off Beckett. Where would the Giants be right now without Hicks? Another scrapheap pickup that is working out very well.

Brandon Crawford- 0 for 3, BB. BA= .257. The batting line is not what's important here. Crawford made at least 4 scintillating plays on defense which played a big role in blowing up Hanley Ramirez' and AGone's nights as those 2 went 0 for 8. The 2 DP's he started were not gimme's at all. On the second, with Juan Uribe hitting and Carl Crawford running from 1B, he had to come in and to his right quite a ways then make a very difficult turn and throw to 2B. Crawford has kicked his D up a notch over the last 2-3 weeks, IMO.

Ryan Vogelsong- 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 2 K's, GO/AO= 11/5. ERA= 3.93. That's 3 QS's in a row for Vogey who has turned his season around big time. Can you imagine the ovation he would have gotten in SF when he came out in the 8'th?

Santiago Casilla- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.86. Casilla has really kicked his game up a notch too. His last appearance was 2 huge shutout innings in Game 1 of the Pittsburgh series where he got 4 K's.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(11). ERA= 1.76. Romo hasn't been getting the strikeout as much of late. He has 5 in his last 9.1 IP, but he's been getting the job done with more ground balls. He faced 4 LH hitters in the bottom of the 10'th surrendering only a HBP to Andre Ethier, but maybe that's a good thing!

The Win allowed the Giants to regain sole possession of first place in the NL West with a 22-13 record and guaranteed them a split of the 10 games on the road trip as well as assuring them of not getting swept in LA. The Rockies dropped to 1 game out in second place with a 5-0 shellacking at the hands of the Texas Rangers. The Dodgers dropped to 3.5 games behind in 3'rd place while the Padres lost to the NL East leading Marlins 3-1 to fall 7.5 games off the pace. The idle D'Backs are 10 games out in last place.

Madison Bumgarner tries to guarantee at least a series split facing Paul Maholm tonight in Game 2 of the 4 game series.

Craw + IF positioning + Pitchers hitting their spots = Greybeard Inside Baseball D. (Note saw an interview w/Rags last year where he expounded on how the Giants, because they retain, teach and know their pitchers, can predictably position D on a hitter/pitch-by-pitch basis.)

About Me

I grew up in Northern California near the Napa Valley. I got interested in baseball and the Giants by listening to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons broadcast Giants games on KSFO. My early heros were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and a guy you don't always think of, Jim Ray Hart. When I got older and was in school and early career, I didn't have time to follow as closely, but I tried to look up their boxscores each day and catch an occasional game on TV. One habit I got into at an early age was looking up the stats of their minor league players in The Sporting News. That became more difficult as TSN moved away from comprehensive baseball coverage. Now, of course, technology and affluence has changed all that. The internet is teaming with farm system/minor league information as well as college and high school baseball. Satellite TV enables me to get most of the Giants games on TV. I'm married with 2 wonderful daughters, who like to watch games with me.